History Snobs

Yesterday was Pentecost Monday and, because France is known for its wild religious devotion, AH got the day off from work.  Of course, as our luck would have it, most of Paris' fantastic museums are closed on Mondays, so we were left with a choice between going to Saint-Chapelle or the Holocaust museum.  Being that we had a delightful picnic planned with friends from church later that day (at which I may or may not have almost started a gang fight with some drunken French teenagers, but that's a story for another time), we decided it might be best to keep our spirits a bit more buoyant and thus decided to save the Memorial de la Shoah for another day.

AH and I waited in line for Saint-Chapelle behind a good-looking family of four consisting of a mother, a father, and two teenagers.  While accidentally (on-purpose) eavesdropping, this is the conversation we overheard:

Dad: *reading from a plaque on the wall* "Saint-Chapelle was built to house the relics of the Passion of the Christ."

Daughter: What? I didn't get that.

Dad: You can read; turn around, it's right there.

Daughter:  No, I didn't understand what it meant.  What's a relic?

Dad:  *giving stern, dadly look* C'mon, you know what that word means.

Daughter:  No, I really don't.  Please, daddy?  Tell me what it means?

Dad: *long pause* It's, you know, really old stuff.

Meanwhile...

Me: *whispers* Is it wrong that I want to break in and give a brief history lesson?

AH: *whispers back* Nope, moi aussi.